Internet Studies

Windows Platform

Cam Studio (Free, released under the GPL Licence)

Creates AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

Debut (Free)

Compatible with Windows 98/2000/XP/2003/Vista. Records video in many different file formats including .avi, .wmv, .asf .mpg, .3gp, .mp4, .mov and more.

uTipu (Free, share online)

Compatible with Windows XP and Vista. Record up to 20 minutes. Saves videos in Flash Video format. Allows for zooming and still in Beta.

Mac Platform

iShowU ($20)

Comes with built-in video presets. Supports QuickTime compression. Compatible on both Tiger and Leopard.

ScreenFlick ($29)

Offers the ability to display keyboard commands, and highlights mouse clicks to better communicate which actions are being performed during screen recording. Compatible with tiger or later.

ScreenFlow ($99)

Compatible with Leopard. Powerful editing tools. Highlight using ‘Callouts’. High quality exporting.

Both Platforms

Jing Project (Free, share online)

Snap a picture of anything on your desktop. Record video of what you do, or what you see. Instantly uploaded. Share in email, IM, or blogs.

Screen-o-Matic (Free, share online)

Screencast-O-Matic is the free and easy way to create a video recording of your screen (aka screencast) and upload it for free hosting all from your browser with no install but again still in Beta.

Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug

A must read book about web site usability. Check his download list on the home page.

The Elements of User Experience by Jesse J Gareth

The planes of user experience presented in a graphical form.

Fast and Simple Usability Testing by Natalie Downe on 24 Ways

“Everyone knows by now that they should test the usability of their applications, but still hardly anybody actually does it. In this article I’ll share some tips I’ve picked up for doing usability tests quickly and effectively.”

For you Clients by Robin Williams

“Are you a client for any web designer?
This section is for you.
Web sites are a relatively new invention in the world, and…”

How To Quantify The User Experience by Robert Rubinoff on Site Point

“Many look to the user experience as an overall indicator of Website success. Analyzing how effectively a Website provides for a net positive user experience can often turn into a subjective affair, rife with opinion and short on objectivity.”

Paper Prototyping

“This is the companion web site for the book Paper Prototyping by Carolyn Snyder. Here you’ll find downloadable versions of materials presented in the book, examples of paper prototypes, references, and more. Whether or not you’ve read the book, you’ll find useful resources here.”
Check the download page

Seven Common Usability Testing Mistakes by Jared M. Spool on UIE
http://www.uie.com/articles/usability_testing_mistakes/

“What’s the easiest way to conduct a usability test? Well, you could just sit a person down (it doesn’t matter who) in front of your design and ask them to do something (it doesn’t matter what).

If this is so easy, why does a standard usability test contain all that other rigmarole? Because that rigmarole goes a long way to ensure that the test will produce quality results.”

Usability Testing Materials on InfoDesign

“The following is a list of materials that we regard as a minimum when running a test. Links to samples (in PDF format) are included where appropriate.”

User Experience Design by Peter Morville on Semantic Studios

“When I broadened my interest from IA to UX, I found the need for a new diagram to illustrate the facets of user experience - especially to help clients understand why they must move beyond usability - and so with a little help from my friends developed the user experience honeycomb.”

What Is User Experience Design by Kimmy Paluch on Montparnas

“User experience design can sometimes be a slippery term. With all the other often used terms that float around in its realm in the technology and web space: interaction design, information architecture, human computer interaction, human factors engineering, usability, and user interface design. People often end up asking “what is the difference between all these fields and which one do I need?” This article examines the term and field of user experience to plainly extrapolate its meaning and connect the dots with these other fields.”

Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design is an intermediate-level book about interface and interaction design, structured as a pattern language. It features real-live examples from desktop applications, web sites, web applications, mobile devices, and everything in between.

Today I found this site which contains excerpts from some of the book’s patterns. The book has more, of course—more introductory material, more patterns, and more examples—but the material on this website is a good start.

From the book’s back cover:
The book’s ideas are presented as a collection of patterns—solutions to common design problems, tailored to the situation at hand. Each pattern contains practical design advice that you can put to use immediately, plus a variety of examples illustrated in full color. In addition, each chapter explains key concepts in interaction design and visual design. Topics include:

1. Information architecture for applications
2. Navigation
3. Page layout
4. Maps, graphs, and tables
5. Forms
6. Graphic editors
7. Color, typography, and look-and-feel

While looking for resources why Flash websites suck, I came across this post by Christian Montoya that reminded me module 1 task of what I hate about the web. Here is Christian Montoya’s truly bad ideas for web design that web designers should avoid.

When starting a new website design project, there could be many solutions to the design problem at hand. As many designers I try and collect work examples from other designers that I like for reason or another. Not long ago, I found this article: “Collecting for Design” by Matthew Smith on Digital-Web magazine. This article talks about this subject. It says:

The ultimate goal for a web designer is to create a functional, interactive tool for the web user. We can add value to the site with creativity and visual stimulation, but I assert that good-looking design is useless unless we’re willing to conform to standard design patterns and accepted principles of user experience.

This article also leads you to design patterns collections by others that are good resources to check when starting your own web design project:

1. Factory Joe’s Collections
2. Patrick Haney’s Web Design Inspiration
3. Clearleft Design Inspiration
4. Gustavo Pimenta’s Design Solutions

Update—Here are a couple more useful resources:

• User Interface Design Patterns Library
• www.welie.com Patterns for Interaction Design

Let’s start with hate. Many annoying usability problems I don’t like. There are many more but here are a few in no particular order:

1. Blinking, flashing, moving objects or another example scrolling text in the status bar (which I check out regularly)
2. Orphaned pages without logo, any sort of navigation or link back
3. Bad colour combinations (for example red/green). When using white text over black background, apply certain adjustments for legibility such as bigger font-size and more generous leading. Use colour-checking tools online to check for possible colour blindness problems, not enough contrast…
4. Default audio plating in the background – especially when no option to turn it off is provided. Luckily my computer’s volume is muted. Example websites: itrainer.com.au—the speaking illustration reloads on every page because the site doesn’t remember my selection choice. Another example ixwebhosting.com brings up a talking sales woman that I turn off as quickly as I can.
5. Sites that only work on IE (not even FF, not to mention Safari). Examples: my bank, oasis on Curtin (the reply email I got from Curtin was: the site supports IE and Netscape and I should really use these specific browsers)
6. All Flash sites or splash pages with or without “Skip intro” link.
   Solution: don’t. But as a minimum, provide an HTML version and let your users select which version they would like.
7. Long download times or using full size images.
   Solution: optimise your pages and images.
8. No indication/feedback to your actions
   Solution: Always provide feedback. Easily done with a minimum of a :hover state.
9. Bad naming selections—using marketing buzzwords instead of web conventions, which then I can’t figure out where to find what I’m looking for.
   Solution: keep it simple. Don’t make me think.
10. No printable version of the site, especially when the content section is floated and isn’t printable.
    Solution: use print stylesheet and unfloat your content.
11. No contact information (email or phone or any postal address) or even who you are

What I love about the Internet?

1. Online services—mainly distant study but also online banking, shopping. We also bought a house online last year.
2. Communication capabilities—email, IM
3. Online programmers communities—forums, mailing lists and groups
4. Online bookmarking
5. RSS feeds and podcasts—great when you want to stay up to date or out of country